Brightstar has called for all house price indices to be immediately suspended until meaningful transaction levels resume.

The specialist distributor says that data releases should be put on hold until a substantial sales levels have resumed in order to guard against “unnecessary panic and knee-jerk policy decisions”.

It follows Rightmove’s decision to suspend its monthly house price report, explaining that “given the lockdown and pausing of key activities in the housing market, statistics on the number of properties coming to market, new seller asking prices, and new sales agreed are not meaningful”.

Savills has also highlighted the problematic nature of current data, warning “in the coming months, low market activity is likely to make it relatively difficult to establish what has happened to prices, meaning this is only likely to become clear as we come out of the lockdown and transaction levels start to pick up”.

Brightstar chief executive Rob Jupp says: “It is crucial that all house price indices are paused with immediate effect and continue to be suspended until the housing market is able to produce any meaningful data.

“We find ourselves in a completely unprecedented situation where the government has, with good reason and quite rightly, deliberately paused nearly all economic activity, and this has imposed an artificial halt on the housing market.

“With this as the backdrop, it seems mad to continue to measure the health of the market using traditional methods. The data simply isn’t there to provide any type of meaningful house price index at the moment.

“To continue to produce house price indices in this situation is very dangerous. It will lead to sensationalist headlines and create panic, which could impede the return of the market when the lockdown is lifted. 

“It may also result in knee jerk policy decisions, which could have a lasting and negative impact on the market.”